KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 2 — Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak should work to provide Malaysians with faster broadband speeds at a cheaper cost next year to ensure the country can be at the forefront of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry, DAP leader Lim Kit Siang said today.

The opposition parliamentary leader noted that the government had poured billions to set up the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) two decades ago in a race to be technologically-competitive and added that it  “would make no sense” for 71 per cent of Malaysians to now prefer slower speed, as the communications and multimedia minister had believed.

“Salleh should make amends and prove to Malaysians that he is a worthy Minister for Communications and Multimedia by introduce a New Deal for Superfast Broadband in the 2016 Budget to be announced by the Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister when tabling the budget in Parliament on October 23,” Lim said in a statement.

This new deal should upgrade current internet speeds from 384kbps to 2Mbps and the prices for the service should also be lowered accordingly to benefit users, the Gelang Patah MP added.

Salleh was ridiculed by a variety of sources after he appeared to defend Malaysia’s sub-par broadband infrastructure, despite over RM3 billion invested by Putrajaya to improve local networks, by pointing out that most Malaysians subscribed to packages with low access speeds.

Yesterday, he accused his critics of twisting his declaration that most Malaysians chose sub-1Mbps broadband speeds, leading to his ridicule online.